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Man-at-Arms
Man-at-Arms is a mostly unknown magical metahuman who has been in New York for less than a year, encountered by less than a handful of people, name known by none. Susannah Marie Duncan is a scholar athlete attending Empire Academy in Manhattan, where her mother (Kelly Duncan) is a teacher, allowing her to attend without paying the hefty private high school tuition. She lives with her single (widowed) mother in Brooklyn. Known by basically no one, Susannah suffers from gender disphoria, feeling herself to be a male trapped in a female body. Background Overview * Mother, Kelly Anne Fisher, Psych & Education, teaching certificate * Meets father, David Andrew Duncan, ROTC Engineering, in college * Married after David graduates, before he goes to basic * Mother finishes final year, then relocates to NY to join him * David is commissioned 2nd LT, Mother works as teacher * Within 2 years only child Susannah Marie Duncan is born * Relocate to Georgia when David is transferred, promoted to 1st LT * Mother goes back to work teaching * 3 yrs later, David killed in traffic accident * W/in 6mo, Kelly & Susannah move to Brooklyn to live with her parents * Susannah starts school, feels different, doesn't 'fit in', confused * Makes friends with a couple of local boys, noted as extremely tomboyish * In middle school, grandmother gets ill, pressure on Susannah to conform * After grandmother passes, pressure remains, now focused on grandfather * After grandfather passes, finances are tight, Kelly takes job teaching at private school Empire Academy in Manhattan * For high school, Susannah gets sent to Empire Academy, uniform required * Susannah loses much of her contact with old friends * Required school uniform increases the pressure and sense of ill-fitting * Starts school organized sports (Soccer, Volleyball, Softball) * Tries to join football team, but is denied by private school * Encounters supers in combat, sees heroine Silverwing fall * Runs to check on her, finds normal woman, dead, magical amulet * Touch of amulet invokes power, making her vision of 'hero' reality * Man-at-Arms defends fallen woman, goes for help * Seeks help from Outreach center for gender disphoria * Continues school, secretly acting as Man-at-Arms when needed Long Form - Journal The counsellor, Sandra, at the Outreach Center says that writing things down, putting it into words, may help me process it. She says it might help me better express what I'm feeling. I don't know if she's right or wrong. I've never really tried before. Never been brave enough. Afraid someone would find them, I guess. But as messy as everything is right now, I figure I could use all the help I can get. So I'll give it a shot. If it doesn't help, I can always burn it when it's done, so I can be sure no one finds it. They usually start these sorts of things at the beginning. I suppose I should do the same. Of course, I wasn't really around for the beginning. But it's a place to start. My mom, Kelly Anne Fisher, met the guy who was my dad, David Andrew Duncan, when they were both in college. Mom was studying psychology and working for a degree with a teaching certificate. He was in Army ROTC and studying for a degree in engineering. I guess they were exactly what each other was looking for; they married two years later just after he had graduated. Then he was off to Paris Island for induction into active duty. Mom still had a year of college left. Mom says that life as a young army wife wasn't too hard back then. We weren't at war or anything. It was no picnic, being separated until she could finish school. But once that was done, it was easy enough to pick up and move and get a job teaching in the area, so that they could be together as a family. Naturally, that worked out about how you would think it did. Within two years of graduating college, Mom was working full time as a teacher, keeping house for 'her warrior', and expecting a bundle of joy to make their perfect little family complete. That would be me: Susannah Marie Duncan. The year was 1994. Within a year, he was transferred to a base in Georgia. So they picked up everything and went. For a while, Mom says, they decided to try to work things out so that she wouldn't have to work. But within two years, she was back teaching and I was in nursery school. I'm supposed to examine my feelings and my memories of my father. He's my primary male role model, and my feelings for him will shape and influence my relationships with all the other guys in my life. I guess he was OK. I don't really remember much about him. He was strong and capable. I know that because I have pictures of him, and because Mom always talks about how he would fix everything around the house. She usually mentions this while kvetching, struggling to patch up something that's broken. But my clearest memories of him are his voice, while he is backlit against the sun, tossing me a Nerf. I think I loved him. I know my Mom did. He may have been busy, but I think he tried to be there. Of course, I just don't remember enough to be sure. In 1998, David Andrew Duncan was dead. He didn't die in a military accident. Just an accident. Mom says he was driving home from the base when the tractor trailer hit his truck. All I really know, myself, is that there was this big, dark metallic box, and everyone said it had my father in it. There was a flag. I have it now. It is in a case on my wall, with a picture of him in uniform above it. For six months, my Mom did what she could. But without Dad's income and without survivor's benefits - he didn't die on-duty - she couldn't afford the house. I remember Gramma and Pap-pap - Mom's parents - showing up with the big yellow truck. A few days later, and that was the end of Georgia. New York was a big transition, I guess. I didn't know anybody, except Mom, Gramma and Pap-pap. We lived with them in Brooklyn. Mom found work in a school. And I finally started kindergarten. That's when I met Bobby and Jessie. They were my best friends. And even better, they both lived within a few blocks, so we could play together outside of school too. We went everywhere together, even though 'everywhere' pretty well consisted of one of our yards, or the small community park. Sometimes the library, though not very often. We usually stayed outside, even in rain. It should have been a happy time in my life. We weren't well off by any means, but we were OK. I had a family, even if it wasn't quite the picture postcard ideal. And I had friends. But I started to notice that I wasn't like the other girls. Most of them dressed 'frillier' in ways. They played with dolls and had tea parties. Those sorts of things never really interested me. I was more interested in running, jumping, climbing and playing sports. I read a lot. I should have been happy. But I wasn't. I can't say I was miserable. But I felt wrong. Off. When I read, I imagined myself as the boys and men, the heroes. Strong. Confident. Capable. Then I'd leave my books, and I'd be disappointed. Bitter. Sometimes I'd take that out on others, fighting with Mom, with my grandparents, or with my few friends. But generally I just wasn't happy. Things started getting harder when I got to middle school. Gramma got sick. I loved her, so I did what I could to help. But that's when the guilt started. Gramma would talk about wanting to have tea parties with me, 'doing the things grandmothers and granddaughters ought to do together, before it was too late'. And Mom listened to that sort of thing. She started pushing at me to dress more like the other girls. She made me grow out my hair. And she asked me to come home and stay with Gramma after school, instead of running around with Bobby and Jessie. We would still hang out, but not nearly as much. I don't regret the time I spent with Gramma. I knew, at least in the way a little kid knows, that she wasn't going to be around much longer. And we did a lot of fun things together. I would read to her, and when she was feeling good, she would read to me. And she would ask me about my friends and my sports. She even taught me, with Pap-pap, about how much fun it could be to listen to the ball games on the radio, imagining what was happening, instead of just seeing it on TV. She loved me, and I loved her. She wasn't trying to make me feel guilty. I don't think Mom was either. They were just both trying to make sure I got 'quality time' with her, before it was too late. But it was the beginning of the pressure. At the time, it made me resent Gramma, and Mom especially for pushing at me. I said some hurtful things, got angry a lot. But I apologized. I didn't want to lose her. At least she died knowing I loved her, even if she never understood why I was so mad all the time. After Gramma passed, things got tougher. For a while, I spent a lot of time with Pap-pap. I was his only grandchild, so he was glad to spend time with me. He didn't even mind going to ball games, watching sports, or talking about them. But I knew he missed Gramma, and he worried about Mom, and me. Mom kept up the pressure, trying to be sure Pap could see what a good daughter she was raising. Truth is, we both sensed he wouldn't last long without Gramma. Even so, it was a shock when he passed so suddenly. One day, he and I were playing pitch and catch in the yard. The next, he just didn't wake up. Pap-pap's death stretched things really tight for Mom. She'd just lost both of her parents in less than a year. The bills from her mother's illness, and burying her father and settling his estate wiped out most of their savings. Mom got to keep the house, but that was about it. She had to work hard to find a better job, and she did, at Empire Academy. It's in Manhattan, a pricey private school. Uniforms and the whole deal. The commute is hard, but it's enough money that things have eased up. And I'm sure it didn't hurt in Mom's view that with her teaching there, she could get me admitted for free. Not that I wanted to go. But I couldn't exactly say 'no, I don't want a better education'. So instead of going to high school with Bobby and Jessie and all my friends in Brooklyn, when the time came for my freshman year I was headed off on the train every morning with Mom to Empire Academy. In my uniform. Yeah, the uniform is a big deal. Mom is determined that her 'beautiful little girl' be a 'young lady.' No slacks for me. With money so tight, I can't waste anything on uniform pants, and Mom will only buy skirts. But at least she let me finally cut my hair. I think she realized if she didn't I'd just hack it off myself. This way at least the style looks decent, and she has decided it's not a fight worth the effort to win. So I wear the uniform, skirt and all, to school. I usually take civvies with me in my bag, and change once the school day is over. She can't argue about that, as much as she'd like to. So it's my bid for freedom, expressing myself. I spend the days uncomfortable, like I'm wearing a lie, some shell to hide the truth. I hate it. The neat thing about Empire State is the sports programs. They may not be as big as some of the public schools, but they field a lot of sports teams. No coed teams, but that's OK. I'd rather play baseball, but softball isn't awful. Soccer is soccer, and though I'd love to be on the wrestling team, I know the guys on the squad would never be OK with that. I tried to join the football team, but the school vetoed that. I don't like volleyball nearly as much, but it's better than nothing. And some of the girls are really OK. Most of the time, they leave me alone. I always feel as if they have to be able to see that I'm different. That I don't fit in. But I try to keep that to myself. I need those sports, that outlet. I can't scare them off, make them shut me out. I couldn't survive school without them. Mom has a burr up her butt about one thing, though: dating. You'd think with all of the horror stories that Mom would be glad to have a daughter who has no interest in dating. But it bugs her that I don't even ask. She's sure that there are guys at school who have asked me out, and she's right. Not nearly so many as some would think, thanks to Mom being at the school. No guy wants to be dating Ms. Fisher's little girl. Only thing to make a worse social pariah would be if Mr. Fields - the Principal - was my Dad. Some of them do work up the guts, though. I don't know why. Maybe they get put up to it, some kind of joke. But I never say yes. They're not really asking the real me out. They're asking the skirt-wearing private school scholar athlete out. They don't really know or understand the real me. They'd freak. So would my friends on the sports teams, if they knew. So I just shut my mouth. I've learned to be good at that. Everything got turned on its head last year, though. I still don't really know what to think of it all. But Sandra says that's what this thing is all about. So. I was out that night in November. I still try to go out and hang out with Bobby and Jessie when I can. It has gotten weird, lately. I know they're seeing the girl shell me more and more, finding it hard to ignore that and just be the friends we have always been. But I still keep trying. Anyway, I was headed back to Brooklyn, making my way to the train, when I spotted the flashes of light, followed by the cracking booms. I knew what it was, instantly: supers, fighting. But this was the closest I'd ever been to anything like that. I stopped to watch. I wasn't alone. She was beautiful, you know? Silverwing. Over seven feet tall, huge silver-feathered wings, that wowzer of a body encased in one of those skintight jobs, and glowing like a small silvery star. She was totally awesome. She summoned some kind of energy shield, and blocked the next few blasts. They were coming right at us. I pushed and shoved, trying to get people to stop staring and start running. And then she took off, met the guy head-on, that sword of light in her hand. Awesome. Faster than I ever would have believed, it was over. But not in a good way. Two more showed up, and they hammered her from every direction. They blasted her so hard. And she fell. She fell right out of the sky. It was nuts. I get that. But seeing her like that ... I just couldn't help myself. I ran towards where I saw her fall. I didn't know what I'd do when I found her. I had no idea. But I just had to get there. I pushed through a warehouse door and there she was. Except ... it wasn't her. Not anymore. It was so creepy, seeing that small, dark-colored woman - so plain really - laying on her back, broken and covered in blood. I started to run towards her. But I tripped. I get back up to my feet and look down. I thought maybe I'd tripped over her sword or something. And there at my feet was this disc amulet. So weird, right? It's some kind of blue crystal. I picked it up. In that moment, I heard the Voice. It wasn't her voice. It really only said one thing, but it said it at the same time in all these different languages. English and Spanish I got. I've figured out French and German. But there were hundreds of languages. All the same word: Hero. The next moment, there was a flash of light. And I was different. I've always been different. But it was always on the inside. Now it was on the outside. And it was huge! I looked down, and I knew, somehow, I'd become what my head, what my heart held as 'hero'. I mean, I knew I'd loved reading all of those books. But I never quite realized they'd had this kind of effect on me. No more short-haired brunette in jeans and a t-shirt. Now I was taller, probably stronger than any guy on the football team. Blonde. Shining white armor. Shield. Sword. The whole thing, like some paladin out of a storybook. Just like how Silverwing had always seemed so perfect. But even better: I was a guy. I didn't get a lot of time to think about things then. I turned my head and saw them coming, looking for her. I just acted on instict, running over to protect her. They fired, and I raised my shield. Stupid, right? But I'd seen Silverwing do it. I believed I could do it. And it worked. The shield flared and created an energy bubble over us, deflecting their attacks. I don't know how long I could have kept it up, but I didn't have to know. Other heroes started showing up, pounding on them. That took the pressure off. And I could finally check on the woman I'd been protecting. I know who she was, now. I followed the papers. But what mattered right then was kneeling down, touching her. Knowing with that touch that she was gone. Dead. And all I could do was kneel there, crying. I can still see her face in my mind, splattered with blood, slack and pale. And I can still see who she really was, inside: Silverwing. Mighty. Compassionate. A heroine who saved lives. I touched her, one last time, closing those dark eyes. I thanked her for saving us. For saving me. And then I went out and found the firefighters and medics, and showed them were to find 'this woman I had been unable to save'. They asked me who I was, of course. I couldn't be Silverwing. That was who she was. A hundred names clamored at me from my memories and dreams, all of these heroic figures. But I wanted something that summed all of that up, that was all of them, not just one. So I just kept it simple: Man-at-Arms. And I left. I changed back, of course. I didn't really want to, after feeling what it was like to be him. No way. But I realized I couldn't just go home like this. It'd kill Mom. And she had been through enough. I hid the amulet and I went home, hugged my Mom, and told her about the battle. Well, most of it. A part of me would love to just be him all the time. A lot of me, really. He's eveything I've ever wanted to be. Realizing that is what made me face up to a lot of things about myself. That's what eventually sent me to the Outreach Center. That's where I met Sandra. She has been trying to help me. She has helped me. At least now I understand what I feel, even if I'm not sure what to do about it a lot of the time. So for now, Sue Duncan keeps going to Empire Academy, trying to keep her grades up, do well in sports, and keep anyone from finding out and freaking out. And Man-at-Arms does what he can to help, when he can. 'Cause that's what a hero does. That's what Silverwing died doing. And I can't think of a better way to be true to me - all of me - than that. MUX History * 2011-07-25: Encounters Heart Girl at scene of vehicular accident, assists EMS in rescue operations, introduces himself to Heart Girl afterwards, and she gives him her cellphone number. Logs * Helping Hands, Helping Hearts - Heart Girl and Man-at-Arms both end up at the same vehicular accident, helping out EMS in rescue operations. The two young heroes meet up in private afterwords for a chat. * History of Heroism - Jesse encounters Susannah, who introduces her/himself as ‘Sam’ at the NYU Library, apparently researching heroes in history, a topic near and dear to the JSA member's heart. * Snakes Stop a Train - Susannah is aboard a rush-hour subway train that is disabled on the tracks. She discovers HYDRA agents using the train's stoppage to block the tunnel to allow them underground access beneath buildings in Midtown, and decides this is a job for Man-at-Arms. Iron Man and Superboy respond to the commotion. This scene is unfinished. More to come. * Lessons in Diplomatic Conduct - Man-at-Arms comes across Ursa disciplining a pushy, grabby sales associate, and interrupts peacefully. Thunderstorm spots this and gets involved, as she has a bone to pick with the Kryptonian. * Secret Meeting - Susannah meets with a new peer counselor at the Outreach Center. They talk about each other's problems. Then exchange phone numbers. Whoops! * Fire in Mutant Town - Man-at-Arms, Phoenix and Captain America respond to a fire in Mutant Town and work together to help save the residents. Unfinished scene * Meeting Young Justice - Man-at-Arms meets up with Superboy and Arrowette in the subway tunnels. They invite him to join Young Justice. * Empathy Without Understanding - Panacea meets Man-at-Arms. There is a misunderstanding. Oops. * Who's Taking Minutes? - Young Justice holds a meeting to go over some urgent and not-so-urgent business. * Explaining Elizraim - Following the uncomfortableness of the team meeting, Man-at-Arms and Panacea meet up at the HQ, and she tries to explain to him about Elizraim. They talk a bit about things not yet known, and things kept secret. * Protection on Patrol - Man-at-Arms gave his word he would protect Elizraim. So he stops by Young Justice HQ to see if Elizraim and Panacea would like to go patrolling together. *Public Relations - Man-at-Arms faces the task of explaining just why members of Young Justice were seen taking a captive. * Self-Expression or Vandalism? - Man-at-Arms and Superboy end their night's patrol at the Daily Planet to examine the altered globe, and Heart Girl shows. There is ice cream! This is the scene with the kiss. * Halt, Villain! - Two would-be heroes (Man-at-Arms and Keely Maher) happen by at the right hour to spot Catwoman breaking into a security goods store. They interfere. * Lessons in Etiquette - Sam encounters Miss Zamin at the library, and they have a chat about polite modes of address and the law. * Patrols and Snacks - Elizraim, Man-at-Arms and Panacea go patrolling together, giving Elizraim a chance to stretch eir wings while under protection. * Floored About Flooring - Superboy and Man-at-Arms talk about more work on the base, this time floors and walls. Meanwhile, Superboy broaches the subject of Heart Girl's kiss to Man-at-Arms' cheek. Hilarity ensues. * More Confusing Labels on Things and People - Sam calls up Jane because s/he needs to talk about Superboy's confusing assertions that Heart Girl must want to date Man-at-Arms. Oh boy. Girl. Whatever! * Blackstone Falling - On patrol, Panacea and Man-at-Arms encounter a falling meteorite which has deleterious effects on the telepath. *An Appeal for Mercy - Members of Young Justice meet with a contact who claims to have information about the assassin who attacked Eym. *Shining Light on the Shadows - Young Justice finally finds the one responsible for the attack on Elizraim Menai, but can they take him down? *Epilogue - With the mage defeated, Elizraim Menai goes back to eir normal life, but ey, along with Man-at-Arms and Panacea, has one last encounter. * To Challenge a Knight - A strange man decides to take a pot-shot at Man-at-Arms over the magical talisman he carries. This does not go well. * Thy Knight, M'Lady - Susannah visits with Jane at the farm, and they talk about a few things. Including Man-at-Arms' new pennon. Category:Characters Category:Original Category:Taken Category:Hero